That's just what Cynthia Stafford did after winning $112 million in the California lottery.

Stafford's winnings may seem like chump change compared to the $579 million Powerball jackpot that players across the country were just sure they would win Wednesday night.

A ticket's cost of two bucks, normally good for, maybe, a soda and a candy bar, can yield a treasury of opportunities and, possibly, a tower of disappointments, winners and consultants said.

"It will change your life ... you will be able to do things you weren't able to do before," Stafford told CNN's Wolf Blitzer, citing formation of a production company, investments in startup companies and philanthropy.

This is the stuff of consultants and psychologists, given the fact that -- says one financial planner -- only half of lottery winners are happier three years later. Sometimes winners make good decisions with their money, sometimes they don't.

New York legal expert and estate attorney Ann-Margaret Carrozza said players should be careful when participating in office pools.

Put a few ground rules in writing, she told CNN. "There's a lot of room for misunderstanding." Participants should appoint someone to be a lottery captain to collect money and keep a sheet of collections.

In New York, Stuart Zuckerman talked wistfully about the "what ifs" should he win.

"I would have to sit calmly down, I would hope, and then just start making plans," he said. "Wife, three kids and a business. There's a lot of planning."

But Yolanda Vega, spokeswoman for the New York Lottery, told Morgan that Powerball provides a "source of entertainment, an opportunity to dream and to hold on to what they believe can happen positively and hopefully for the best for all and all the people around them."